Water saves Bluewater farmers; ‘Drought is death of the earth’ (Part II)

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  • Water saves Bluewater farmers; ‘Drought is death of the earth’ (Part II)
    Water saves Bluewater farmers; ‘Drought is death of the earth’ (Part II)
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Brief synopsis of Part I: The Bluewater Land and Irrigation Company was registered in Valencia County in 1894. (Cibola, created on June 19, 1981, had originally been part of Valencia County.) The BLIC began work in 1895 on the Blue Water Canyon dam which included a 400- acre reservoir. Floodwaters from a partial dam failure in 1903 damaged homes, fields, and part of the Santa Fe Railroad track. The original corporation filed bankruptcy; the Bluewater Development Company took on the project, but inadequate engineering resulted in structural problems, according to New Mexico Territorial Engineer Charles D. Miller, who acknowledged that the defects could have eliminated if the BDC had utilized expert supervision during the construction process.

(The Cibola Citizen published Part I on April 7, page B4.)

Area residents’ attempts to create an irrigation system have included four structures, which were built between 1885 and 1927. Each was constructed at the confluence of Bluewater and Cottonwood Creeks, according to Eugene Sabin, “Story of Bluewater,” published in 2014.

The Bluewater-Toltec Irrigation map, recorded in Valencia County in 1923, identified Blue Water Canyon and the surrounding land including adjoining canals and irrigation ditches. Author Sabin theorized that the Bluewater Development Company opted to disband following the creation of the Bluewater-Toltec Irrigation District.

The Santa Fe Railroad sold $350,000 in bonds in 1925 to fund the construction of a 105-foot cement dam to replace the previous structure that the Bluewater Development Company had built. The Bluewater-Toltec Irrigation District signed a $235,000 contract with Anderson Brothers Construction, an El Paso, Texas company. The result was a concrete arch dam, 80-foot-high and 500 feet in length, which created Bluewater Lake. The lake has an average surface of 3,021 acres at the spillway crest.

“About one thousand acre-feet of water will be left in the reservoir below the outlet gates will always provide sufficient water for fish and arrangements for planting same is now underway. The diversion dams are of hollow reinforced concrete type and the earth canals have been tested and carried the water with practically no leakage, and [sic] are provided with concrete and steel turn-out gates,” reported the Santa Fe New Mexican, June 18, 1927.

Residents of Albuquerque, Bluewater, and Gallup hosted a three-day Fourth of July dedication to celebrate completion of the main Bluewater storage dam. Frihoff G. Nielson attended to represent the early investors who had envisioned the reservoir project. The organizers recognized E.A. Tietjen, who had partnered with Frihoff in the earlier dam endeavors.

Emma O. Tietjen was given Lots 2 & 3, Block D, Tract 102 following the death of her husband, Ernst A., in 1925. The widow lived in the house, Lot 2 of Block D, which is now the southeast corner of Center Street and Cedar Street, Bluewater. The current Bluewater Elementary School is on Tract 102, according to the “Story of Bluewater.”

(Grants/Cibola County School District is finalizing plans to build a new elementary school, facing Center Street, on the 15- acre property. The project includes demolition of the current structure.)

Motorized traffic played an increasingly prominent role in the area’s economy when the U.S. Highway System announced plans in 1926 to build Route 66 to connect Chicago, Illinois with Los Angeles, California. The New Mexico Highway Department had improved the roadbed in November 1927 by grading and installing crushed stone surfacing on 10.4 miles of Route 66 between Grants and Bluewater.

Route 66, one of the original highways in the U.S., was also known as the Will Rogers Highway, the Main Street of America, and the Mother Road. The transportation system was scheduled for completion in 1928.

The U.S. Census reported 57 head of households in Bluewater on April 1, 1930. The families came from a variety of ethnic backgrounds; some of the names included Bordman, Candeliria, Chapman, Holzmeister, Navarre, Pinero, Schmaltz, Silva, Smith, Uivaida, Wiggins, and Wravric.

Four centuries of European immigration contributed to a chain of events, from 1539 through 1937, that led to the creation of Bluewater Lake State Park, which is located 30 miles west of Grants.

Timeline for Bluewater Dam

(1905-1990s)

•1905 – warnings about “cave off” and likely dam failure were reported.

•1907 – Bluewater Development Company takes over the Bluewater Land and Improvement Company project at Bluewater.

•1908 – BDC announces completion of reservoir with a 92,000-acre-feet storage capacity.

•1909 – cloudburst severely damages completed dam.

•1911 – New Mexico Territorial Engineer Charles D. Miller identifies structural defects in the BDC dam.

•1923 – Blue Water-Toltec Irrigation District map is recorded in Valencia County.

•1925 – Santa Fe Railroad sold $350,000 in bonds to fund the construction of a 105-foot cement dam to replace the previous structure. The Bluewater-Toltec Irrigation District built a concrete arch dam, 80- foot-high and 500 feet in length, which created Bluewater Lake. The lake has an average surface of 3,021 acres at the spillway crest.

•1927 – a three-day event celebrating the completion of the dam, which has a storage capacity of 53,000- acre feet.

•1937 – The State of New Mexico purchased 160 acres and Governor Clyde Tingley signed legislation that created Bluewater State Park.

•1941 – the last time that water spilled over the arched dam, 90 feet high and 500 feet long, that impounds 38,500 acre-feet of water, according to park officials.

•1955 - the State Parks and Recreation Commission assumed operational/oversight responsibilities for Bluewater State Park.

•1958 - The U.S. Bureau of Land Management granted the park 236.64 acres for recreational use.

•1962 – The BLM donated an additional 117.96 acres to the state park.

•1990s – State Senator Joe Fidel secured funding for new hydraulic gates to replace the original manual head gates that had required two men to operate.